scandinavian Archives - Modish Living

What is Nordic furniture style?

Simple and striking in design, Nordic furniture has a functional design and look that is appealing to many people. There are many ways to incorporate the Nordic style in your home, from the right flooring solutions to a mix of materials to give them a Nordic look. Here, we take you through the 10 most important design features to consider when using Nordic style furniture to create this timelessly popular interior scheme this season.

The Floor

Wall-to-wall carpets are a rarity in Scandinavian countries, so team your Nordic furniture with wooden floors, finished in a light colour.

Colour

White walls, mixed with blue and grey fabrics and rugs are perfect for creating a laid-back Nordic ambience in your home. We love the Nordic look of a deep, earthy leather armchair sitting alongside a light-coloured floor, with light blue throw to add texture to the scene.

Materials

Natural materials are a must. There is nothing contrived with Nordic furniture – nothing that works too hard to be noticed or separate in the design scheme. Opt for wood – and plenty of it – with leather for seating and other well-placed accessories.

Form

Clean lines are key to an interior design taking its cue from Nordic inspiration. For example, opt for a leather armchair in black or tan that is uncomplicated, with smooth flowing lines and generous curves.

Function

Every room in your home needs to be practical and functional. Nordic homes have a minimalist design, without being devoid of character. Function is vital however, and that applies to everything, from every piece of Nordic furniture to every accessory you choose.

Furniture

Eye-catching yet pulled together – this is how you need to be able to describe everything in a Nordic style interior. This style can be a rustic dining table with the character of the wood on display or a smooth small oak sideboard with a arm chair in a soft leather.

Fireplace

Scandinavian winters are harsh and therefore an open fire is a must. In the UK we make the fire the focal point of the room, often in the centre of a wall, but Nordic tradition places them in the corner of a room. However, modern Nordic fires, whether they are more traditional simple columns or a modern black metal wood-burner, are a design statement, adding both warmth and style to a living room.

Eco-Friendly

The Scandinavians have been quick to embrace environment-saving technology and processes. Triple glazing, superior wall and roof insulation, ground source heat pumps… all are more or less standard and should be considered wherever possible to complement the furniture and style in your home.

Inside/outside room

Nordic countries love embracing nature – it may be cold, but an inside/outside room can be idyllic and with the right heating system. Having an inside/outside dining room or living room means you too can enjoy the beauty of winter without feeling the cold.

Minimal accessories

Declutter! There is no need for stacks of ornaments, books or a sculpture on every surface. Choose key accessories wisely and use them sparsely across the home.

Nordic furniture boasts an interesting, simple, and elegant interior design style. Sit back in a sumptuous leather chair, enjoy the warmth of a roaring fire, gather around an oak dining table and enjoy the peaceful ambience of your Nordic inspired home.

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Derby Reclaimed Wood Extending Dining Table

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Calming colours for a bedroom according to Feng Shui

White bedroom with king size wooden bed frame

Feng Shui is as popular as ever – developed over 3,000 years ago as a way to bring peace, positive energy and harmony into the home environment. Here we look at some of the colours you can use in your bedroom according to Feng Shui to bring calm and balance. Reclaimed wood furniture fits into Feng Shui principles as it brings the wood and nature element into the home. Let’s find out more…

Brown

Brown walls make it sound as if you will end up in a slightly dull and uninspiring bedroom. However, according to Feng Shui, brown is associated with growth, vitality and endless vision – so find the right shade for your space, and it is actually a perfect colour for the bedroom. To make the most of this colour scheme you should have a good solid wooden headboard on your bed as this, according to Feng Shui, gives your head support and backing.

White

White is a great colour to use if you want to create a restful bedroom. Clean, fresh, crisp and clear, white will help you get a great night’s sleep. Using white means you are bringing positive energy into your bedroom and symbolises a bright future. Crisp white bedding, crisp white walls and natural solid wood bed work together to bring nature and harmony into your room for a restful night.

Photo featuring: Dulwich Reclaimed Wood Bed

Grey

Grey represents the metal element in Feng Shui and is used to bring calm into a room, making this hue perfect for a Feng Shui bedroom. It is often used in places where people meditate or reflect. Grey is a very popular colour in home decor at the moment, making it an easy colour to work with. Scandinavian furniture and its interior decor style lend itself perfectly to the principles of the Feng Shui bedroom, with the focus being on creating light, clutter-free and functional living spaces. Contrast the grey with white bedroom furniture such as a white wardrobe, white bedside table and white drawers or choose reclaimed wood furniture with a hint of grey finish, such as the Dulwich collection above.

Photo featuring: Winchester Reclaimed Wood Bed

Blue

Even without using the principles of Feng Shui, blue is a top colour pick for the bedroom. It is widely believed that blue is seen as the most relaxing of the colour spectrum. Blue in Feng Shui is connected to water, gentle, graceful and soothing. You sleep to wake up refreshed and revitalised and blue in a bedroom cools and calms you to get the best night’s sleep. This means it is a great colour not only for an adults bedroom, but also a perfect colour if you are looking to create a relaxing space for younger members of the household. Getting the furnishing right for a relaxing night is a must in a child’s bedroom – places to put toys away on shelving to avoid distraction at sleep time – a kids toy box or wooden blanket box is perfect to stash bits and bobs away in.

Learn about interior lighting from Scandinavian design

Open plan living/dining room with wrap around floor to ceiling window

Scandinavian design can teach us a lot when we are looking at how to brighten our homes. It’s an integral part of home design in the Nordic countries where the days are short and the nights are long throughout the winter months.

Go natural

Scandinavian interior design and natural materials go hand in hand. This is why reclaimed wood furniture is the perfect way to furnish your room if you’re seeking Scandinavian furniture. Choose furniture with a light and natural finish – the natural colour of the wood and its homely feel will bring plenty of warmth into your room. Think pale wood or white dining table for your dining space, put it in a bright spot in your dining area to give plenty of natural daylight when you sit at it. Above, you can see how the Chelwood Medium Reclaimed Wood Dining Table almost blends into the white walls.

Light and bright

Scandi design is all about white walls, minimal, clutter-free and windows that allow plenty of natural light in. Get your lighting right – you don’t want glaring white lights on all day and all night – warm, cosy lighting and layered lighting is what you want to achieve. Ideally, you should have the option to have bright lights when needed and dimmer lighting for cosy nights in front of the wood burner. An accent colour is also a great way to add a bit of brightness and warmth to a space, a bold coloured velvet armchair can bring a real pop of colour to the room.

Photo featuring: Chelwood Reclaimed Wood Bookcase

Clean lines

During the winter months, the Scandinavians spend a lot of time inside – this is why uncluttered and functional spaces are preferred…rather than feeling hemmed in with too many things lying around. Furniture should not be fussy, instead, clean lines and strikingly elegant design is what is called for. Open shelving or a ladder bookcase would work well in a Scandi design – the openness does not break up the space the same way as a closed-in wood bookcase would – but of course, it’s not to be cluttered!

Eco-friendly

Scandinavian furniture was born out of a need to use the materials that were readily available with an emphasis on nothing goes to waste, this is where the eco-friendly and sustainable element originates from. This mindset still exists today in home building and interior decor. Where possible go for bamboo or jute lampshades, reclaimed wood furniture, such as a rustic coffee table, or a wooden floor with rugs made from natural fibres. Bring some nature into the room in the shape of houseplants, which will also help to brighten the room during winter months.

An outside room

To really embrace the Nordic culture in your home design you should have an outdoor seating area that you can continue to use during the colder months. Warm-up weatherproof seating with faux fur throws, cushions and some blankets to wrap around you. A wood fire pit will turn a cold and dark outside space into a warm spot with a flickering natural flame to watch as well as illuminating the space….it will be a place you will want to spend as much time as possible.

Great ways to brighten up a dark dining room

Dark dining room with black dining room table

If you don’t have a lot of natural daylight streaming into your dining room here are a few of our top tips to help brighten it up.

Bright kitchen diner with wooden dining table, chairs and dark rug

Crisp white walls

White reflects light – so the number one tip is to keep walls and the ceiling nice and white, crisp and clean. Light bounces around a white room and scatters light around the space. Build on the white theme by adding white curtains or blinds, white mirror frames or white framed artwork. This includes wiping down walls to keep them as white and bright as possible.

Pale wood dining table with matching spindle chairs in bright dining room with dark blue doors

Photo featuring: Branford Round Extending Dining Table – Oak

Pale wood and white furniture

Of course, a great way to introduce light into a room is by furnishing with light coloured or white furniture. A Scandinavian minimalist theme is perfect, the whole concept of Scandi style is to make the most of natural light and to use every means possible to bring yet more light into the room. The Scandi interior embraces sustainability so reclaimed wood furniture is hugely popular. Crafted from high quality light oak, we think the Scandi influenced round Wycombe oak extending table is a perfect choice. A round dining table set also works particularly well in a small space as it has no corners so it will make your space look bigger. The Chelwood Medium Reclaimed Wood Dining Table is another excellent option, with this trestle table you have the option of a wooden bench as opposed to individual chairs. As a bench has no back, again it will make the room appear brighter with less in it.

Photo featuring: Chelwood Medium Reclaimed Wood Dining Table

Layering lighting

If your dining space is in a kitchen you can place one or two glass table lamps on the top of a kitchen sideboard, hang fairy lights in dark areas or stand a floor lamp in a dark corner. Wall lights also work well as the light is concentrated on the walls -more eye level than a ceiling light, these work particularly well if they shine light down as well as up.

Photo featuring: Vance Neutral Lamp

Use a light floor rug

If you have a dark floor and want to bring more brightness into the room you can add a light coloured rug. With grey still a popular colour in interior style right now you will easily be able to find a light grey rug that suits most interior decor styles. It’s a neutral colour and will help break up and brighten dark flooring.

Add a bit of black and accent colours

A great way to make the white really pop is to add a couple of dark items to the room – we suggest adding a black pendant light – this works to make the white look whiter! A black pendant light works wonders over a reclaimed wood dining table as it distributes the light more evenly around the room. Bright and bold accent chairs will also help brighten the room – adding a burst of vibrant colour against the white will bring in another eye-catching contrast against the white.

Modern wing back chair in bright red in empty room with white walls and black hanging pendant lights

How to use Dulux colour of 2021 in your dining space

Brave Ground™ is the Dulux colour of the year for 2021 so we thought we would look at how reclaimed wood furniture pieces would work with this colour.

“Dulux colour experts have chosen Brave Ground™, a bolstering shade that connects back to nature and the simple things. A warm, earthy tone, it creates a feeling of stability, growth and potential; and provides a firm foundation for change and creativity in your home.”

Stone painted living room wall with brown pendant light and dark grey leather sofa

This gorgeous neutral earthy colour will set a sublime backdrop for many different interior decor styles. Here, in particular, we are looking at using Brave Ground™ in the dining room as we think it would make the perfect wall colour to complement a reclaimed wood dining table.

Being reminiscent of an old stone farmhouse means that Brave Ground™ would look particularly good with rustic furniture it. Use this hue as a backdrop to dress a farmhouse table with earthenware and terracotta pots. The Farringdon reclaimed wood dining table is a top pick of ours with the option to add a mix of leather dining chairs or a more rustic, but very on-trend wooden bench.

We love the versatility of this colour it will work well in a minimalist Scandi inspired dining room. It would imitate the wood panelling seen in the image below to give the room a quick bright and airy lift and leave you with a neutral canvas to work from. You can accessorise with a bamboo pendant light over the table, wicker baskets and house plants to nail minimalist Scandi style.

Photo featuring: Wycombe Oak Extending Dining Set

For an ultra-modern sleek look, we like how Brave Ground™ could be blended with bright and bold statement colours like warm burgundy and other colours with a hint of red or pink. Accessorise your dining room with rich burgundy curtains, striking wall art, a statement rug and wooden dining chairs dressed with coordinating cushions and small chair throws.

Photo featuring: Mitcham Industrial Oak Spider Leg Dining Table

Now we can look at the industrial dining space, this colour will soften the heavy black of an industrial dining table like this spider leg one. This table has been paired with a mix of grey and tan faux leather Cleo chairs so the warm earthy colour of Brave Ground™ will blend with the tan chairs and provide a neutral contrast to the black.

Dining room storage solutions you’ll want to show off

Dining room with large white glass dresser and sideboard and reclaimed wood dining table

Here we look at a few key items that offer practical and super stylish dining room storage.

Farmhouse dining table with grey fabric chairs and large white display cabinet

Drinks cabinet

If you love to entertain and like to move seamlessly from before dinner drinks to sit down dining, then a cocktail cabinet in your dining room would be perfect. No carrying bottles back and forth and all shakers and stirrers will be right at your fingertips. For a full-on glamorous feel, we love the Blackbone industrial oak drinks cabinets – available in a smaller size and a full-height version, for the glam element you can choose either silver or gold industrial legs. If Scandi simplicity and clean lines is more your thing then the Portobello drinks cabinet is our top pick for you, crafted from beautiful light oak with a classic chevron pattern featuring on the doors. This will look stunning with the minimalist oak dining table, also from the Nordic-inspired Portobello range.

Photo featuring: Portobello Oak Drinks Cabinet

Display cabinet

A glass door cabinet is a great alternative to standard wooden sideboards – we are talking about showing off here so this is a great way to display all your best bits for all to see. The industrial Standford glass and wood cabinet has a glass front and sides so you can put your all favourite pieces on display….and with a drawer too for a bit of hidden storage. The Standford reclaimed wood furniture range is proving to be as popular as ever with statement industrial furniture for every room in your home.

Photo featuring: Standford Reclaimed Wood Glass Cabinet

Welsh dresser

Sometimes we just want furniture to feel warm and homely, this is where a traditional style reclaimed wood dresser would come in. The Chelwood dresser is just screaming out to be placed in a farmhouse kitchen and will match beautifully with other reclaimed wood furniture you already have. Produced from full of character reclaimed wood, it mixes closed storage, for the everyday bits and bobs, with a glass-doored display cabinet on the top of the unit, and with plenty of drawers for cutlery.

Photo featuring: Chelwood Reclaimed Wood Dresser

Sideboard and wine rack

For those who love wine, we suggest the gorgeous Worcester reclaimed wood wine rack with sideboard. With a generous 28 spaces for your wine collection and hidden storage on the other side of the unit, it will look stunning paired with the Worcester reclaimed wood dining table. The Worcester range is handcrafted from 100% reclaimed wood, each piece a stunning blend of white painted and natural finish wood.

Photo featuring: Worcester Reclaimed Wood Wine Rack Sideboard

5 ways to style your bed like a pro

reclaimed wood bed with white bedding and throw

We no longer consider our bedroom a “tucked away” room in our homes. A bedroom can be a refuge in a busy household, a place for a bit of quiet time during the day as well as a relaxing place to wind down before sleeping. Here we have a look at how the pros style a bed and get it looking so inviting.

1. Add a throw to your bed

Adding a throw to your bed is a quick way to give your room a new look. Choose a heavier one for autumn and winter, such as a faux fur or a rich velvet to give a warm and cosy feeling. In spring and summer, you can choose a lighter and brighter cotton, or satin for a more airy and cooler feel. In a neutral coloured bedroom you can play with different colours as well as different fabrics. A reclaimed wood bed is a natural and neutral piece of furniture offering you a great base to play with your style.

2. Scatter cushions

Cushions are a great way to add style and interest to your bedroom. You don’t even need that many to get the look, three is a good amount for a king size bed. Just buy good quality cushions and then swap, mix and match cushion covers made from different fabrics like satin, faux fur and leather, velvet, cotton and linen, to give your room different looks. You can choose different shades of your main colour or add some eye-catching accent colours or striking patterns.

3. Layer like a designer

We all agree that layering on beds just looks so wonderful in all those designer images. This look is actually really easy to achieve. Start with a plain bottom sheet on your bed, a reversible duvet set is definitely a good starting point for this look, pop it on your bed and fold the top end back and you already have some layering happening. Now add a folded back throw to the bottom half of your bed and for the finishing touch simply add a few scatter cushions.

4. Under-bed storage

A storage drawer under a rustic wooden bed is a very practical way to make your bed look complete, a perfect way to add storage and style! These can be used to store so many things – seasonal clothes, spare bedding, towels…. all these items can be tidily tucked away in an otherwise unused space.

5. Create a theme or colour palette

Think if you want a theme to your bedroom before choosing your bedroom furniture. Do you like the light and airy Scandinavian style? Are you a nature lover and want natural fabrics and living plants in your bedroom? Do you like vibrant bold colours or an ultra-modern look? Reclaimed wood bedroom furniture is a great choice, giving you a versatile product which is easy to base a modern, rustic or traditional bedroom theme on.

5 best wardrobes to keep your bedroom looking tidy

We all have so much to store in our bedrooms, making the right choice in storage options is paramount to creating your ideal place to wind down and relax in.

Below are 5 important things you might want to consider when choosing the perfect wardrobe for your bedroom. Of course, this is also the perfect time to give the items you no longer need, or wear, to a charity!

1. Choose a wardrobe with drawers

A wardrobe with drawers is always a great choice. This will present you with valuable extra storage space especially in a small room if you don’t have enough space for a chest of drawers as well…. A light coloured wardrobe would be the perfect choice for you. Drawers also save on hanging space in your wardrobe – socks, vest tops, thick jumpers and items that don’t crease can all be popped away in them. A drawer organiser will help you keep them tidy and ensure that your clothes are quickly and easily found when you need them!

2. Brighten your room with a white painted wardrobe

If you like minimal clutter and clean crisp white in your bedroom then consider a white painted wardrobe to reflect light and brighten the space. Add coordinating reclaimed wood bedroom furniture to bring your room together. A white-painted reclaimed wood wardrobe works wonders to brighten a dark room and gives a small room the feeling of more space.

3. Add character with reclaimed wood

Reclaimed wood wardrobes come in many styles, shapes and sizes – From a natural finish to white painted, to a dark retro/ antique look – there are plenty to choose from that will suit your style. A reclaimed wood wardrobe oozes character, their history is there for all to see in the old nail holes and in the beautiful undulations of the wood. Rustic wardrobes offer versatility, blending as perfectly in a modern room, filled with bold and vibrant colours as they do in a farmhouse style or neutral colour scheme.

4. Open hanging

Not everyone wants to hide their favourite clothes away in a wardrobe! An open wardrobe adds a light and elegant touch to your room, a sort of traditional Provençale farmhouse feel. With a shelf for storing folded items and shoes on, it could be all you need! These are also great in the hallway for hanging coats on and a brilliant idea for your guest bedroom.

5. A touch of Nordic rustic

When discussing wonderful wardrobes we could not overlook the hugely popular Scandi furniture trend! Natural light, clear and clutter-free spaces, clean lines and neutral colours are a great foundation to style the perfect bedroom. A solid wood wardrobe would tick all these boxes, offering storage as well as style. Pair this with other reclaimed wood furniture, soft rugs and light and natural fabrics to create a room that will be hard to leave in the morning!